Celebrated Grateful Dead photographer Bob Minkin has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new photobook, New York Rocked! While Minkin is known to many for his visual work capturing the Dead in the 1970s and ’80s, during that same time, the Brooklyn native witnessed the birth of punk and new wave alongside the rise of classic rock icons, while the blues legends who laid the groundwork for rock n’ roll took on a revered status. New York Rocked! will capture this flashpoint in popular music history with a collection of hundreds of never-before-seen photos.
Minkin’s music photography career started on November 29th, 1974, when the New Riders of the Purple Sage played the Academy of Music, and 15-year-old Minkin took his Kodak 104 Instamatic to the show. Within three years, Minkin’s photos were being published in music magazines while he studied at New York’s School of Visual Arts.
While immersing himself in the world of the Grateful Dead, Minkin also saw some of the biggest emerging artists come through New York. From punk legends The Clash and Ramones to a young Bruce Springsteen destined for stardom, to ’60s rock pioneers The Who, Santana, Grace Slick, and Hot Tuna, to blues greats B.B. King and Muddy Waters, and many more, New York Rocked! captures the vibrant proliferation of genres at the turn of the decade. The 224-page hardcover book also includes photos of Talking Heads, Allman Brothers Band, Bonnie Raitt, Frank Zappa, Johnny Winter, Peter Tosh, Albert King, Al DiMeola, Weather Report, Jethro Tull, Paul Simon, the Grateful Dead, and loads more.
[Photo: Bob Minkin — Rick Danko and Paul Butterfield, Lone Star Cafe, 9.27.79]
In addition to the photos, New York Rocked! contains stories from Minkin and some of the musicians featured. Minkin recalls packing into a sweaty club with the Ramones, “standing in awe as Muddy Waters lit up the stage at My Father’s Place, watching Springsteen blow the roof off The Palladium in ’78.” In addition to the legendary artists, Minkin also preserves iconic New York venues—many of them lost to deterioration and development—like the Bottom Line, Lone Star Café, Central Park, Madison Square Garden, Beacon Theatre, Passaic, NJ’s Capitol Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, Wetlands, Bond’s International Casino, The Ritz, and My Father’s Place.
For a pledge of $75, supporters will receive a first edition copy of New York Rocked! personally signed by Minkin. Printed on high-quality, heavyweight, acid-free matte paper, the book is limited to only 1,000 copies. Minkin estimates the printing, design, film scanning, retouching, and fulfillment of the book will cost upwards of $30,000 and is already a third of the way to that goal on Kickstarter. The photographer has successfully funded his previous Grateful Dead photobooks, Live Dead, The Music Never Stopped, Just Jerry, Just Bobby, and Just Phil, using the platform.
[Photo: Bob Minkin — Jerry Garcia, Madison Square Garden 1.8.79 / Santana, The Pier, 7.28.81]
Pre-order the new Bob Minkin photobook, New York Rocked!, by pledging to his Kickstarter campaign. Check out some more photos in the gallery below and on the project’s homepage.
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Photos From Bob Minkin’s New Book, ‘New York Rocked!’
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Photo: Pete Townshend, Giants Stadium, NJ, 7.3.89 / David Crosby, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, 11.26.88 -
Photo: Frank Zappa, Palladium 10.28.78 / Jorma Kaukonen, Capitol Theatre, 11.20.76 -
Photo: B.B. King, The Ritz, 3.12.87 / Buddy Guy, Lone Star Cafe, 11.14.84 -
Photo: Bruce Springsteen, Palladium, 9.17.78 / Pat Benatar, Central Park, 7.25.80 -
Photo: Bob on the Canarsie line, heading into Manhattan to print photos at SVA (1978)